Roads and Housing

jonvan · 10-18-2010, 12:50 PM

I hit a road bump in my first city last night, probably entirely due to poor planning on my part, which was probably due to lack of knowledge of how the game progresses. Or so I hope at least.

Anyway, I wanted to get some opinions and thoughts as to how people handle certain situations.

Traffic/Roads
Aside from building a larger road, how do you all typically deal with bad traffic? How do you rebuild roads for neighborhoods?

One thing I found was that it was a bit difficult to destroy a road that was connected directly to a building, to place a larger road in its place. Seemed to be mostly related to spacing/size of the large road compared to the original layout. So what I always ended up doing was surrounding a neighborhood with a large four lane road, then connecting to it with smaller roads.

Buildings/Rezoning
Another problem I found myself running into was designing the actual layout of my city. I did better on my second go around, but I still managed to mix and mingle everything in the mad dash of trying to please my citizens.

So arises the question of what exactly do you do when you want to re-zone an area. I believe the only option is to demolish said area and start re-zoning? If that's true, what happens when you demolish someone's home? Do they move out of the city? Do they go back into the queue of people trying to move into the city?

Anyway, maybe a little tl;dr is in order?

tl;dr - What is the best method of fighting traffic? How do you rezone an area without making your citizens furious?

JK_DC · 10-18-2010, 01:26 PM

I try to build jobs and residences close together so there isn't much travel on the roads. Have you built bus depots?

starsnostars · 10-18-2010, 01:30 PM

I don't know the answers to your questions but I want to know. Unless there's something I'm missing rezoning as it is now is very limited and upgrading roads is just a nightmare.

jonvan · 10-18-2010, 02:06 PM

@JK_DC haven't made it far enough for bus depots just yet.

I tried to not put too much industry in the residential area at first, figured it'd look nicer to keep them separate lol.

@starsnostars Yeah, I may play with it tonight in regards to removing housing to see where the citizens go, and do the same for jobs.

sfade · 10-18-2010, 02:35 PM

It depends on how you set up your city.

If you intermingle your jobs and housing it relieves the pressure on your commuting routes as they don't have to travel as far. However, obviously this is not always ideal for some jobs like heavy industry and manufacturing (lots of impact on the environmental satisfaction).

The other option is to lay down avenues (the first largest road) and use those as the main arteries for commuters. I never use the default tool setting (see note at end of post for more information on zoning options) to lay down my zones as it always uses small roads by default (which are generally overwhelmed very quickly when your population explodes and just become a headache). You have to change that setting first thing, again explained at the end of this post.

I find the best method is to build a circulatory flow setup with one way avenues and paved streets - a way in and a way back out in a clockwise or counterclockwise fashion depending on your preference and layout. You'll want to arrange to leave open space for later destruction and re-plotting of larger roads when the time comes on the main routes. Pause the game, destroy your old avenue route and lay down a new one with the larger road when necessary and then resume the game - if you used paved roads (or better) for your smaller capillary roads within the district you should be all set.

Important Note About Zoning Tool:

If you right click your zone tool (housing, etc) you will see a menu for selecting options for road size and such, it is highly recommended you change those settings to what is appropriate for the layout you are planning. A lot of people are unaware this feature exists and end up constantly zoning areas using the default small road (which will result in terrible traffic once the grid becomes larger).

jonvan · 10-18-2010, 04:12 PM

Great info sfade.

I found the right-click option last night and never looked back when I started my second city, lol.

I like your idea of one-way avenues...I might have to give that a try.

JK_DC · 10-18-2010, 08:02 PM

I didn't see that right click setting either. I don't think it will be a huge problem until medium-high densities though.

stinkfinger · 10-19-2010, 05:57 AM

Traffic LOL, I have those problems too.

So far its the most challenging aspect for me.

I have been experimenting with one way streets and limiting the exits from respective neighborhoods.

jonvan · 10-19-2010, 06:18 AM

Last night I started a new city in an oil region to begin producing a significant amount to export to my other cities. I got it up to about 15k citizens and have my traffic down to a minimum. I used mostly small avenues and setup one way streets. These seemed to work quite well.

One thing I noticed was when you zone an area and it automatically creates intersections on a "main" avenue, you will often times get lots of traffic backup there. I found myself going back and redesigning the roads a bit, removing intersections and forcing them to take a "longer" route out.

So far so good with that one, I think tonight I'll start another city for farming, or maybe go back to my original and work on some of its traffic issues.

Ric666 · 10-19-2010, 06:23 AM

One way streets for me work a treat in my neighbourhoods, I then surround my neighbourhoods with larger roads with borders of decoration(usually trees) either side to allow space for further upgrading in the future if required. also makes it look quite pretty.

I also find placing bus stops at the entrance & exits of my neighbourhoods really keeps down traffic. Will be testing more things tonight.

great tip for using larger roads for zoning sfade! I never knew that

10-18-2010, 12:50 PM	#1
jonvan Join Date: May 2009 Reputation: 5 Posts: 141	Roads and Housing I hit a road bump in my first city last night, probably entirely due to poor planning on my part, which was probably due to lack of knowledge of how the game progresses. Or so I hope at least. Anyway, I wanted to get some opinions and thoughts as to how people handle certain situations. Traffic/Roads Aside from building a larger road, how do you all typically deal with bad traffic? How do you rebuild roads for neighborhoods? One thing I found was that it was a bit difficult to destroy a road that was connected directly to a building, to place a larger road in its place. Seemed to be mostly related to spacing/size of the large road compared to the original layout. So what I always ended up doing was surrounding a neighborhood with a large four lane road, then connecting to it with smaller roads. Buildings/Rezoning Another problem I found myself running into was designing the actual layout of my city. I did better on my second go around, but I still managed to mix and mingle everything in the mad dash of trying to please my citizens. So arises the question of what exactly do you do when you want to re-zone an area. I believe the only option is to demolish said area and start re-zoning? If that's true, what happens when you demolish someone's home? Do they move out of the city? Do they go back into the queue of people trying to move into the city? Anyway, maybe a little tl;dr is in order? tl;dr - What is the best method of fighting traffic? How do you rezone an area without making your citizens furious?

10-18-2010, 02:35 PM	#5
sfade Join Date: Jan 2009 Reputation: 920 Posts: 2,123	It depends on how you set up your city. If you intermingle your jobs and housing it relieves the pressure on your commuting routes as they don't have to travel as far. However, obviously this is not always ideal for some jobs like heavy industry and manufacturing (lots of impact on the environmental satisfaction). The other option is to lay down avenues (the first largest road) and use those as the main arteries for commuters. I never use the default tool setting (see note at end of post for more information on zoning options) to lay down my zones as it always uses small roads by default (which are generally overwhelmed very quickly when your population explodes and just become a headache). You have to change that setting first thing, again explained at the end of this post. I find the best method is to build a circulatory flow setup with one way avenues and paved streets - a way in and a way back out in a clockwise or counterclockwise fashion depending on your preference and layout. You'll want to arrange to leave open space for later destruction and re-plotting of larger roads when the time comes on the main routes. Pause the game, destroy your old avenue route and lay down a new one with the larger road when necessary and then resume the game - if you used paved roads (or better) for your smaller capillary roads within the district you should be all set. Important Note About Zoning Tool: If you right click your zone tool (housing, etc) you will see a menu for selecting options for road size and such, it is highly recommended you change those settings to what is appropriate for the layout you are planning. A lot of people are unaware this feature exists and end up constantly zoning areas using the default small road (which will result in terrible traffic once the grid becomes larger). Last edited by sfade: 10-18-2010 at 02:55 PM.

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10-18-2010, 01:26 PM	#2
JK_DC Join Date: Jan 2009 Reputation: 193 Posts: 2,209	I try to build jobs and residences close together so there isn't much travel on the roads. Have you built bus depots?

10-18-2010, 01:30 PM	#3
starsnostars Join Date: Oct 2009 Reputation: 1 Posts: 139	I don't know the answers to your questions but I want to know. Unless there's something I'm missing rezoning as it is now is very limited and upgrading roads is just a nightmare.

10-18-2010, 02:06 PM	#4
jonvan Join Date: May 2009 Reputation: 5 Posts: 141	@JK_DC haven't made it far enough for bus depots just yet. I tried to not put too much industry in the residential area at first, figured it'd look nicer to keep them separate lol. @starsnostars Yeah, I may play with it tonight in regards to removing housing to see where the citizens go, and do the same for jobs.

10-18-2010, 04:12 PM	#6
jonvan Join Date: May 2009 Reputation: 5 Posts: 141	Great info sfade. I found the right-click option last night and never looked back when I started my second city, lol. I like your idea of one-way avenues...I might have to give that a try.

10-18-2010, 08:02 PM	#7
JK_DC Join Date: Jan 2009 Reputation: 193 Posts: 2,209	I didn't see that right click setting either. I don't think it will be a huge problem until medium-high densities though.

10-19-2010, 05:57 AM	#8
stinkfinger Join Date: Sep 2009 Reputation: 523 Posts: 601	Traffic LOL, I have those problems too. So far its the most challenging aspect for me. I have been experimenting with one way streets and limiting the exits from respective neighborhoods.

10-19-2010, 06:18 AM	#9
jonvan Join Date: May 2009 Reputation: 5 Posts: 141	Last night I started a new city in an oil region to begin producing a significant amount to export to my other cities. I got it up to about 15k citizens and have my traffic down to a minimum. I used mostly small avenues and setup one way streets. These seemed to work quite well. One thing I noticed was when you zone an area and it automatically creates intersections on a "main" avenue, you will often times get lots of traffic backup there. I found myself going back and redesigning the roads a bit, removing intersections and forcing them to take a "longer" route out. So far so good with that one, I think tonight I'll start another city for farming, or maybe go back to my original and work on some of its traffic issues.

10-19-2010, 06:23 AM	#10
Ric666 Join Date: Mar 2010 Reputation: 171 Posts: 1,600	One way streets for me work a treat in my neighbourhoods, I then surround my neighbourhoods with larger roads with borders of decoration(usually trees) either side to allow space for further upgrading in the future if required. also makes it look quite pretty. I also find placing bus stops at the entrance & exits of my neighbourhoods really keeps down traffic. Will be testing more things tonight. great tip for using larger roads for zoning sfade! I never knew that